Disclaimer: I do NOT own SRMTHFG! All rights go to the rightful owners and creators of the show.
Chapter 19: Duel! Azalea vs Chiro!
"Duel…START!" Antauri announced.
The minute he said his last word Azalea was the one who immediately made the first move. She began making a small sphere of dark energy in the palm of her hand and had it flying towards Chiro. He was caught a little off guard since it happened so fast, but managed to sidestep the move just in time. Since they were both at a distance from each other, he made a lightning bolt in his hand and called out,
"Chiro Spearo!" He threw the lightning bolt at her, but he used that move so many times on her in the past, she wasn't going to fall for it again. Not to mention that him calling out the name of his move before even doing it was foolish, especially since she knew almost all of his regular moves from watching him fight in the past. Azalea dodged the move like it was nothing and began getting in close to him, while sidestepping some of his moves like Chiro Spearo and Thunder Punch.
When she got close enough to him, Azalea threw her punches and kicks at him, which he blocked successfully, until after trying to kick him she unexpectedly slid in closer to him while ramming her fist into his abdomen. He clutched onto his chest and collapsed on one knee, struggling to catch his breath. She then kicked Chiro ruthlessly on the ground while he was down and took a few steps away from him, allowing him to purposely recover. That proved to them how cocky she was. The monkey team and Ivan gasped when she first got him good in the chest, but now some of them were beginning to have their doubts about Chiro winning, all except for Antauri, who said,
"No, Chiro's going to win." The black monkey was so sure of himself too, but unless their leader changes his strategy this duel wasn't going to last long. They could all see that, that's for sure.
It took a few seconds before Chiro made an attempt to get up onto his feet again, still feeling the pain from the blow he just took. He stared at Azalea, who was now a few distances away from him again. He knew that since she could predict his every more just from him calling out the name of it like he usually did. He couldn't do that this time. She knew him all too well now.
"Is that all?" Azalea taunted. "One punch and you're already done?"
"Not a chance," he exclaimed. Chiro resisted the urge to call out the name of his move while he was using before he did it this time. It was Monkey Fu and he let out a beam of neon green energy from the palms of his hands at her. When he did that, she wasn't expecting him to use that move and got her good in her right arm, while in attempt to dodge it. She grinned at him when she felt the blow.
"Better," she groaned. "As expected from the leader of the Hyper Force Team. This is going to be fun."
From here on out the two of them were at a tie with one another. As the duel dragged on throughout the afternoon, they began to get the feel for each other's moves and how they each fight. The two of them therefore tried to outsmart one another and each got to land some blows on each other here and there. Every move and assault that they made on one another were powerful and put all of their strength into each attack, which drained them of vitality faster than they expected. Not to mention that the more that they each use their powers, whether it would be the Power Primate or the Powers of Darkness, the quicker their energy faded away and every second that passed, had them draw closer to the end of the battle.
It's been almost a half hour now since the declaration of the duel and Azalea and Chiro weren't getting anywhere so far. They were both so equally strong and smart that no matter how hard they tried they just couldn't get each other down. The monkey team and Ivan who were standing out towards the side wondered if this duel was ever going to end. They exchanged some more punches and blows on one another, before separating and standing in front of each other, trying to catch their breath. Azalea grinned again and panted,
"Not…bad…Chiro."
"You too," he replied. "But…isn't it about time that we end this?" She forced herself to stand up straight.
"Yes, yes it is. Put everything that you have in this one blow…it will decide the winner." Chiro intently focused on the past and thought about all that they've done since the beginning of the battle. He knew that Azalea has been using all this time that they've spent with him to study his moves and battle style, but even so, there was one move that she didn't get to see that might just be able to defeat her.
Azalea began charging up her Powers of Darkness in the palms of her hands for her ultimate move. Gradually the violet energy began swelling up into a tightly packed force, ready to be released. In this one move she was determined to win this battle against Chiro. All of this time she has been wanting to defeat him in battle so badly, even when they were training he would defeat her every time, but now this was her time to win a duel against him.
But Chiro was doing the same. He tapped into the Power Primate that was located deep down inside of him, like he did before at the Citadel of Bone. He felt the same power as before surging through him and in no time his neon green gorilla avatar surrounded his entire being, like a force field and an extension of himself.
When he did this Azalea couldn't believe her eyes. She has never seen Chiro in that kind of state before, but she wasn't going to allow herself to lose to him. Not this time. She stretched out the palms of her hands towards the gorilla avatar that enveloped his body and let go of all of her dark energy that she had in that one straight blast. The dark violet force that she released at him appeared as if she got him, dust flying in the air in the process, so she couldn't really see him.
At first her eyes lit up when she was certain she saw this, but when the dust began clearing she saw that Chiro went charging in after her. He was injured from that blast, but still going as strong as ever. With his avatar he grabbed Azalea in his gorilla force field hands and began squeezing her to death. She gasped for air, but with the blow that she did on him, she didn't have anything left in her to keep her moving forward. The last of her energy went into that one final blow. In no time she couldn't take it anymore and she fell unconscious.
When Azalea began regaining consciousness she saw that she was on a white bed with bandages covering her entire body. She ached everywhere and never did her muscles nor her ligaments felt so sore and painful before. Not in her entire life. She hardly remembered the end of the duel that she had with Chiro. She was so out of it then, it was all just one big blur to her. Azalea looked around the room and realized that she was in her same room inside of the Super Robot, as she was residing in when they first decided to stay with them. Ivan was in her room, sitting in a chair next to her bed and when he saw that she was awake he yelled out with joy,
"Azalea! Your awake and alright!" He tackled her with a hug, but when he did that she felt the pain pulsing through her. She weakly pushed him away.
"Ouch! Ivan, cool it alright?! That hurts….a lot."
The robot monkeys must've heard the commotion because in no time they went into her room and asked how she was doing.
"I'm…alright," Azalea replied. "But I hurt everywhere."
"That was as close call there Azalea," said Gibson. "If we didn't stop Chiro soon after you fell unconscious then he would've certainly killed you." Her eyes widened and she rubbed her head.
"Just what even happened? I hardly remember anything."
"Soon after you fell unconscious," Antauri explained. "Chiro wouldn't stop squeezing you while he was under the influence of the Power Primate. After we stopped him he also fell unconscious and is now in pretty weak condition. Both of you are." Azalea thought about what Antauri has said and if that was the case, then strictly speaking she lost this duel with him. She felt pretty bad about it because she was so determined to win this time and gave it all she had, but she was still no match for Chiro. She let her sadness sink in and lowered her head.
"So, I lost then."
"Don't be so depressed about it Azalea," Sparx reassured. "That was some fight that you two put up with. Never have we seen someone, except for the Skeleton King, had Chiro release his true Power Primate avatar like that before. That's saying something."
"Is Chiro going to be alright?" Azalea asked.
"Yeah, he's going to be fine," Gibson replied. "He just woke up not too long before you did and we discussed about your way of fighting and all that you've helped us with in the past."
"And we came to the conclusion that you should join our team," said Antauri. "You could be a big help with being one of the protectors of Shuggazoom. And we now know that the Sword of Destruction is the key to truly defeating the Skeleton King once and for all."
"We even got your uniform," said Nova. Azalea let the information sink in for a moment. She couldn't believe that they were actually asking her to be a part of their team. She cleaned out her ears to make sure she was hearing them right. She blinked a few times, uncertain as to what was going on.
"What?"
